Even as the six landing aircraft hogged all the limelight at the Bengaluru International Airport, a high-level committee of the Ministry of Civil Aviation were at the airport site in Devanahalli, doing an "on the spot" inspection of the facilities there.

They were checking for compliance of all the statutory norms before allowing the airport to become operational from March 30 this year.

It is learnt that the team comprising senior officials of Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), will vouch for the adherence of all the parameters on various profiles of a functional airport before giving green signal for its operations.

The airport is scheduled to be formally launched by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on March 28, followed by the first commercial flight at 12.05 am on March 30.

During its last visit, the Civil Aviation team had found that 14 parameters related to the Air Traffic Control (ATC) remained to be complied with by the promoters, the Bengaluru International Airport Limited (BIAL).

Trumpet interchange

K V Rangaswami, president (Construction), Larsen and Toubro, one of the shareholder companies in the Rs 2,470 crore BIAL project who arrived here by a private jet, said all works would be completed by March 25.

“The trumpet interchange flyover that is being constructed at a cost of Rs 120 crore will be completed on time.

Once open it will be just four km from the trumpet interchange to the airport terminal building. BIAL will be able to handle 11 million passengers when operational. I am confident that despite litigations we will be able to complete connectivity to the airport in time of its opening on March 28, so as to ensure that commercial operations begin from March 30,” he said.